Working It Out (26 page)

When Seth slid in next to
her, he reached over and laced his fingers through hers, inadvertently
reminding her of how well they fit together. Grace squeezed his hand and pushed
the worries to the back of her mind.

G
race rapped
lightly
on her brother’s door and stood back, tapping her foot against
his concrete front porch as she waited impatiently for someone to answer. Normally,
she’d let herself in, but Lanna’s car was parked out front, and Grace wasn’t
about to barge in on them.

Only thirty minutes
earlier, Seth had dropped her off at her apartment, where she’d quickly cleaned
herself up before jumping in her car and driving straight here. She had a small
window of time before Seth returned to pick her up for dinner, so she needed to
get back soon. They planned to take the ferry over to Bainbridge Island in a
few hours.

Grace should have waited
until the next day, but she couldn’t bring herself to be patient. She needed to
talk to someone. Now. Although she’d originally come to for Alec, seeing
Lanna’s car made Grace realize that the person she really needed was Lanna.

The door opened, and Lanna
appeared. She wore an apron, held a wooden mixing spoon, and had a smudge of
something gooey on her cheek. “It’s Grace,” Lanna called over her shoulder
before turning back to Grace with a bright smile. “So glad you’re here. You’re
just in time for caramel popcorn.”

Grace laughed. “Who eats
caramel popcorn at three o’clock in the afternoon?” Her stomach growled as she
said it, and Grace realized she hadn’t eaten lunch. Only a couple of granola
bars Seth had given her after their mountain biking fiasco.

“We do.” Lanna pulled Grace
inside and shut the door. “Just wait until you try it. It’s my own special
mixture of marshmallows, brown sugar, and butter. You’ll love it.”

Grace’s stomach growled
again, louder this time, and Lanna pointed a finger. “See? You know you want
some.”

Alec sat on the couch,
watching a How It’s Made episode on TV. A large machine pressed down, cutting
circles from large black leather sheets for who knew what. Grace shook her
head. Her brother had always loved that show.

“Hey, Grace, long time no
see,” Alec said dryly. He still came to her clinic twice a week to work out, so
it had only been two days since she’d seen him.

“I’m here for Lanna, not
you,” Grace quipped, biting her tongue so she wouldn’t add, “so there.”

“Really? You came to see
me?” Lanna grinned as she drew Grace into the kitchen and filled a bowl with
delicious-smelling caramel popcorn. She pushed it toward Grace. “I know we just
saw each other at Seth’s party the other day, but we didn’t really get to talk
much. How are the wedding plans coming along?”

“Slow.” Grace pulled up a
chair and sat down, eating a handful of some of the best caramel corn she’d
ever had. “You know Seth. Deciding on invitations, food, and photographers
isn’t his thing. If it were up to him, he’d take me to the courthouse tomorrow
and seal the deal.”

“Don’t you dare,” said
Lanna. “You need a proper wedding so I can be a proper bridesmaid. Speaking of
which, we’re still on for shopping Monday night, right? I’ve already told Seth
and Alec that they’re on their own for the night.”

“Definitely.” With her mom
living across the country, Grace would have had to shop for wedding dresses alone
if it weren’t for Lanna. Besides, a girls’ night out with Lanna was exactly
what Grace needed right now. No extreme sports, no stress about her future
husband—just a fun evening out.

“Have you scheduled the
church yet?” Lanna asked.

“Yeah. For October
seventeenth.”

“So soon?” Lanna’s smile
widened. She clapped her hands and gave an excited hop. “Yay! But oh my
goodness, we have so much to do before then. Order flowers, schedule a caterer
and a band, pick invitations, find a good photographer . . .”

Lanna continued with her
list while Grace fought to push away the unsettled feelings in her gut. When
the scheduler for the church had said the soonest available date was mid
October, Grace thought it sounded too far away. But not anymore. Now, two months
felt more like a blink of an eye. Was Grace ready to walk down the aisle toward
a guy who loved to risk his neck on a daily basis? After this morning, she
wasn’t so sure.

“Earth to Grace,” Lanna
cooed, her eyes sharp and speculative. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I, uh—” Grace
stopped. This was why she’d come, wasn’t it? To lay her fears on the table and
pray that someone could smash them to pieces? “Actually, I need to talk to you.”

Lanna’s eyes filled with
worry. “Oh no, what’s wrong?”

Grace went on to explain
about the morning’s events—how Seth had taken her on a “mild” ride then
proceeded to pitch himself over his handlebars. Grace explained her fears, worries,
and reasons behind her hesitation. With each sentence, the pit in her stomach
grew.

“I just don’t understand
why Seth likes mountain biking, heli-skiing, or any other sport that could land
him in the hospital with a broken neck or worse,” Grace finished, her eyes
pleading with Lanna to make the pit go away.

Lanna let out a breath and
offered a sympathetic smile. She pulled up a barstool next to Grace and sat
down, leaning her elbow on the counter. “There’s a reason he’s like that, you
know.”

“Why?” Maybe if Grace
understood that aspect of him a little better, she’d come to accept him for who
he was and not worry so much.

“He’s told you about my
brother, Mike, right?”

“Yeah.”

 Lanna nodded. “The two of
them were so close, like brothers. When Mike found out he had an advanced form
of stomach cancer and there was nothing to be done but try to slow it down, they
decided to live life to the fullest for whatever time Mike had left. They went
sky-diving, heli-skiing, got into mountain biking and bungee jumping, and even
flew to Myrtle Beach to race cars. You name it, they tried it. It was almost
like Mike wanted something else to get him first, and Seth went along with it because
he’s incredibly loyal—almost to a fault.

Lanna let out a breath and
dropped her gaze to the table. “After Mike finally passed away, I thought Seth
would tone it down, but he didn’t. Instead, he found new friends—ones that
loved the adrenalin rush as much as him. At first I was angry, because it
seemed like he didn’t mourn at all for my brother, but then I realized he was
just mourning in his own way, by doing those things that reminded him of Mike.
I think that’s partly why he still loves that kind of stuff. In a way, it keeps
Mike alive.”

Lanna leaned closer and
placed her hand over Grace’s. “When Seth loves, he loves deeply. Look at the
way he never gave up trying to help me with my program or the way he never gave
up with you. He’s there for the people he loves and always will be.” She
paused, meeting Grace’s eyes once again. “He adores you, Grace. He’s always had
a pretty upbeat personality, but I’ve never seen him as happy as he’s been
these past couple of months. If anyone can tone him down, it’s you.”

As Lanna talked, the pit
in Grace’s stomach gradually dissolved, leaving her feeling relieved. Lanna’s honest
and heartfelt words not only soothed Grace’s worries, but it made her see Seth
in a new light. She understood him better and admired him even more. And with
that understanding came the knowledge that she needed to embrace the
adventurous side of him because it was part of what made Seth Seth. A big part.

Grace pulled her hand free
and wrapped her arms around Lanna. “Thank you,” she said. “For being such a
great sister to Seth and to me. You have no idea how much I needed to hear
that.”

When Lanna pulled back
there were tears in her eyes. “I’ve never had a sister before.”

Grace smiled and hugged
her one last time. “You do now.”

F
ollowing
her talk
with Lanna, Grace’s doubts all but vanished. On Monday, they
went shopping as planned and found the perfect wedding dress: A Bateau sheath
gown that hugged Grace’s body from its elegant capped sleeves to her waist. But
her favorite part was the way it fanned out in a beautiful A-line skirt that
swished as she moved. Grace fell in love with it instantly and looked forward
to the wedding more than ever, especially after Lanna introduced her to an
incredibly talented photographer.

Everything was back on
track.

Saturday morning, Seth
took her wakeboarding. Normally Grace loved riding on the boat and waterskiing,
but every time Seth dove in the water to take his turn, she felt the stirrings
of another pit in her stomach. He pulled stunt after stunt after
stunt—everything from something he called a
heelside raley
to a back
roll. Grace stiffened when his board left the water then let out a breath when
he landed safely or came up for air. But then he attempted something called The
Whirlybird, lost his balance mid-air, and landed hard on the side of his head.
Even above the noise of the engine Grace could still hear the thwack. Her heart
beat a million times a second until he resurfaced and slowly made his way
toward the boat with a bleeding nose.

Owen joked and teased,
Seth joked back, and Grace remained tense and worried for the duration of the
ride. And a doubt crept back in.

A few days later, Seth
took her to a rock gym. As she tightened her harness, Seth explained that it
was the perfect place to learn the basics before they went for a “real” climb
in the mountains. Grace pictured the IMAX movie she’d once seen of some crazy
climber scaling a two-hundred foot cliff in Zion National Park, and the doubts
came rushing back like a wave breaking on the beach.

But when she and Seth took
a walk through the park, taste-tested food for their wedding, started coaching
fall soccer, and went kayaking, the doubts subsided, and Grace was never more
sure that Seth was the person she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.
Why couldn’t all their dates be like that—fun, adventurous, and romantic?

If only.

About a month before their
wedding, Seth drove Grace to an unknown destination, telling her it was a
surprise. Normally, she loved surprises, but with Seth, they’d sort of lost
their appeal. Would today be the day they climbed a real mountain? She hoped
not, although Seth was headed away from the mountains, not toward them, so that
couldn’t be it. Her stomach twisted into knots as they continued to drive.

This is who Seth is.
You can’t change him, nor do you want to.
Which was true. His loyalty and love of life were two of the reasons
Grace had fallen for him in the first place. She needed to remember that.

Seth finally turned into a
parking lot with a sign that read
Harvey’s Airfield
and cut the engine.
He twisted toward her and grinned. “Ready?”

Butterflies whipped around
in Grace’s stomach. An airfield. Somehow, she knew they weren’t here to take a
nice, calm scenic flight over the beautiful Seattle area.

 “For what?” she mustered.
Don’t say skydiving. Please don’t say skydiving.

“We’re going skydiving.”

The butterflies turned
into large angry bats, beating against her insides. Lanna’s once-comforting
words dissolved into a pile of ash as the pit returned with a vengeance. If
Seth wanted to jump out of a plane at who knew what altitude to careen through
the skies so he could keep Mike’s memory alive, he’d have to do it without her.

Grace stared at the small
airplane hanger, still not moving to release her seatbelt. “Correction,” she
finally said. “
You’re
going skydiving.
I’m
staying right here.”

Silence. Grace could
practically feel his eyes burning into her profile.

“You don’t want to go?” he
asked.

Wasn’t it obvious? Of
course she didn’t. All of her pent-up emotions that had been slowly building
for the past several weeks broke loose. Grace clenched her fingers into fists
as she turned to face him. “No, I don’t. Just like I don’t want to rock climb
for real, and I don’t want to go mountain biking again. Or heli-skiing, for
that matter, just in case you get any ideas come winter. Seth, this is getting
out of control. Actually, it
got
out of control the day your surgeon and
I said you could resume normal activity. Then suddenly it’s like you have a
death wish or something. I mean, you don’t, do you?”